Majority of my story takes place in a prison. The only time it takes place outside of it shortly beginning and end of it. One complaint I got was it lacked world building. The most I can do is take outside influences, culture, customs and infuse it in the prison. Basically, the world is the prison. The book is sci-fi, but the MC doesn't get to experience the glamourous sci-fi world but only in the prison. What do you folks suggest?
By definition, the setting is the prison. Establish it. Whatever is going on in the story takes place in this setting, so write it like you would any setting. Just because it's prison doesn't matter.
Yeah, I would say, this. For example, what is the ideology behind the prison? Is it for profit/forced labour, is it for keeping the inmates from overturning the ruler(s), is it to make them suffer for punishment or revenge, is it for their betterment or for a perverted idea of betterment? If you know this, you can go from there to "What kind of society holds such believes? What other believes do they hold?"
My current wip also has the same dilemma. All of the characters work at the same place, so in the beginning the setting is the job. At the end we return to the original setting. So everything in between changes as far as setting goes. Your story isn't in prison, that is the story... well, I don't really know your story but if it takes place in prison then add that element to the setting as you write.
By its nature, the actual environment in a prison will be bland and minimal. Nobody is going to invest resources making it an interesting environment for prisoners. So the world-building has to come from the characters, and the social structures they create. There will be routines, idiosyncratic social norms, vernacular, expectations, hierarchies, power struggles... those are the world you want to build. A good alternative way of approaching this is to think about what message you want to communicate through your story, and then model that in the structure of your prison. For example, if you want to make some statement about population control, you could create a world in which the prisoners are, say, being unknowingly drugged to suppress them. I think a good example of world-building in a prison is Alien 3. Although it's not a particularly good film overall, I did like the way they created a religion within the prison, with a hierarchical structure which included the wardens. There was definitely a culture among the residents of the prison, and you got the sense it was unique to their location and a product of their incarceration.
I think this is where you might want to include some flashbacks to show your character on the outside, committing crimes or whatever, but this would allow you to show how the outside world works. Also, what about visitors? Can't they bring stories from the outside. Personally, I think prison stories are fascinating and really don't need all that much world building. For all intensive purposes, your characters are kept in cages. Things like why they are there, for how long and the conditions they're kept in can also say a lot about the outside world.
Foucault might be a good start. Prison is about control, dominance, secrets, order and counter order... If you take Foucaults ideas and principles, totally different type of architecture that still uses Foucaults ideas... Then you have a good starting point. After Foucault and abstractions you can go to real world. Solzhenitzyn is your friend then. After that you should maybe talk with some people who have been years in prisons. There you have a good start for world building. 1. Inmates do. And that is essential. 2. That is true and well said.
The prison the MC associates with is more of a segregated prison of the main prison. The court system is integrated in the prison making it one stop shop smooth process. I guess the most similar way I can compare is like the tv show the OZ. The MC is part of group of special prisoners, sorta more of a privileged to be there than part of the general populace. He comes off sorta weird by he is not custom to their ways, slang or customs(learning as he goes). As if you were go to a foreign country, live and mingle in their community. I have thought about applying to be a correction officer in a prison. I was in the army, 11B so best jobs I can do is security. I figured it would give me better insight of the prison world.
There's your answer. The prison is your story's world. If, to the MC, it's like a foreign country, then make it feel like one. If the world is the prison. Then each room inside of the prison is a country/town, with differences based on who hangs out there in their free time or general culture of those specific rooms. It doesn't matter what the "world" of your story is. As long as you make that "world" something that the reader can visualize and understand fully, then you've done good work. Edit: A good comparison would be the first few Harry Potter books. The majority of those took place almost exclusively inside of Hogwarts, without really exploring much outside of it (Save for Privot[?] Drive and Diagon Ally, but those don't support my argument). The point is, I think you should look into how Rowling went about building a world that was almost entirely inside one enclosed compound, and see if you can't glean some insight from that.
have a read of Papillon by Henri Charriere and Midnight Express by Billy Hayes prisons vary wildly from culture to culture and for that matter prison to prison..(state to state if your in the states) so you need to establish what your prison is like. Green River rising by Tim Willocks is another good example although that's fictional
Apropos of nothing, this thread put me on a Kiss of the Spider Woman, Closet Land, Midnight Express marathon. Prison, prison, prison. Kiss of the Spider Woman is astoundingly good.
Second or third or whatever the above, prison needs worldbuilding just as much as any other setting. I`ve been lucky enough to avoid firsthand experience, but if you simply think of the Angola prison in Louisiana, the prison in Cool Hand Luke, the prison in Shawshank Redemption, and the prison in Oz, you've got four vastly different physical environments. The Shawshank Redemption has the most classic vibe of all of them, but an inmate transferred from any one to another would have a steep learning curve to stay on the right side of his fellow inmates and however much of the right side of the guards he cared to. Is the prison modern and well-maintained, or is it a relic of a bygone era? Is there climate control? Is the climate control effective? Do the prisoners have work, or is it just a warehouse? Is the work desirable, or do they feign illnesses to avoid being put on work details? What are their fellow inmates incarcerated for, non-violent, violent or political crimes? How sympathetic are the other inmates to the charges your MC is imprisoned for? Are there gangs, and is that a good or a bad thing (social support etc)? Tons of worldbuilding, especially since most of your readers won't have any direct experience, unlike if the book was set in something like suburban America (or its equivalent, depending on your nationality).
Latin American prisons are very interesting. They have an open environment within the prison, so it's more like an insular town than a correctional facility. Frequent conjugal visits and almost unlimited access to contraband.
I've been taking a break on writing, just reading and doing acting atm for a Dracula Play. I will take a read with Shawshank Redemption. I saw the movie. The book is based in Sci-fi. The main prison is highly advanced, very well maintained but other portions not so much. The court is inside the prison, basically a one-stop shop. So when the prisoners arrive, they're tried, convicted and sent directly to the prison in one smooth transition. The entire planet is pretty much a prison planet, a structure of civilization is built around maintaining this massive prison. The Warden has a status of a governor/ceo position of this whole society. Best way to put it, very similar to how cities build their infrastructure and economic systems around a military base. The general populace is the worst, where useless convicts are thrown into. The ones who are part of gang life, far beyond rehabilitation and can't be placed back into society. It's one place convicts dread so they what it takes to get rewarded to sent elsewhere in the prison. Anything can happen to a prisoner once they're in there and really no one cares except regarding the facility is maintaining control. I could make other parts of the prison insular small towns, they roam around but heavily guarded and over-watched. I haven't thought on climate control, but I would say in the main prison, common area climate control is very basic. At night it can get extremely cold, which I do mention MC experiences. The planet is a dry, mild hot/cold planet, sorta like the weather in Midwest. The other sections in other variations of the prison have more quality of convicts that have some worth. They're incarcerated for almost pretty much anything since the corporations & govt make a profit off of them the similar situation in the U.S. Their all separated and wear different color jumpsuits based on their crimes; housing basically how long they've been sentenced. As for the MC, his crime was committing treason. All the convicts hate the govt, so it gives the MC some cred but the majority of convicts don't care. Only really the priority on their mind is surviving day by day. The section of the prison they're in has rehabilitation or an opportunity for freedom.
